Meta Feedback Post (Feb 6 Balance Update)

[Kovu.7560]

> @"Swordfish.8512" said:

> ##Ranger##

>

> **Idealistic Changes**

> * Give the pet the same treatment as PvE, where it cannot be cleaved out. This will allow many traits to suddenly become viable, along with numerous pet skills that are currently completely abandoned.

 

Please.

Yes please this.

God yes.

 

~ Kovu

[Chaba.5410]

> @"Kovu.7560" said:

> > @"Swordfish.8512" said:

> > ##Ranger##

> >

> > **Idealistic Changes**

> > * Give the pet the same treatment as PvE, where it cannot be cleaved out. This will allow many traits to suddenly become viable, along with numerous pet skills that are currently completely abandoned.

>

> Please.

> Yes please this.

> God yes.

>

> ~ Kovu

 

And engineer turrets and gyros. Hurr hurr.

[apharma.3741]

I read

 

"Without the support provided by the Firebrands, or once by the core Guardians, many classes would struggle to operate at all in WvW zerg gameplay. I remain firm in the belief that a metagame revolving around Guardian gameplay is a fun and stable place for the game mode- the only legitimate way to change this would be to add more stability options to other classes, as nerfing the Guardian extremely would see close quarters gameplay flounder. "

 

Then after I'd composed myself some 15 minutes later I decided to look at the changes proposed and don't agree with anything that is anything less than a huge nerf bat to everything equally. The game needs to take a damage hit, a sustain hit and increased cool downs. Remember when water fields mattered? Remember when a team knowing their combos vs a team that didn't would wipe the floor every single time? Remember when cool down mattered?

 

The game needs it's pace slowing a bit, this doesn't mean unkillable bunkers it means slowing it down so you have more than 1/4s before 5 CoR hit you and you're dead followed by a shade party on you.

 

FB is NOT fine, it is every bit as broken as scourge and the worst part is they're all fundamentally broken from the base concept of the elites.

[Kovu.7560]

> @"Chaba.5410" said:

> > @"Kovu.7560" said:

> > > @"Swordfish.8512" said:

> > > ##Ranger##

> > >

> > > **Idealistic Changes**

> > > * Give the pet the same treatment as PvE, where it cannot be cleaved out. This will allow many traits to suddenly become viable, along with numerous pet skills that are currently completely abandoned.

> >

> > Please.

> > Yes please this.

> > God yes.

> >

> > ~ Kovu

>

> And engineer turrets and gyros. Hurr hurr.

 

Eh. Those are a little different. Those aren't a forced mechanic that has heavy synergy with the profession's weapon skills, stats and both passive and active traits out of the box. Not to mention ranger weapons have the lowest coefficients in the game due to them being "balanced" with pet damage. (Seriously, show me a pet that can contribute meaningful damage to a zerg fight, let alone not get one-pushed.)

Turrets and gyros are optional utilities that have a cooldown -- not unlike ranger spirits, necro minions or (kek) spirit weapons. Pets are uniquely tied to the basic operation of the profession.

 

~ Kovu

[Klypto.1703]

Biggest thing they need to do is rework renegade and tone down this 1 shot mesmer crap.

[DeadlySynz.3471]

"Rangers have a few decent options available to them in zerg fights, but nothing strong enough to solidify a place in the metagame"

 

Given the vast amount of whining going on about Scourges, I'd say Rangers should be next to top priority (or even top priority ahead of Firebrand) in the Meta game due to how easily they dispose of Scourges. Given Scourges can make short work of Firebrands, common sense would dictate you'd want a class in there to take care of the one class that gives the Firebrands the most grief.

[Seffen.2875]

I had a Long thought about whether i think i should comment or not. I don't want to be rude, but i don't think that i am not able to Sound so. I'll just be straight Forward and hope you can see some Points i am trying to make.

 

I think you have a lot of right Points. But almost as many wrong Points.

 

1. Guardian is right now in a pretty bad spot. In bigger Zergs it may not look like it but he really is. Guardian is right now the most boring class accesible. and on its own the most useless. A ministrel guard in zerg without a !Scourge! to Support him will melt within seconds. And there is pretty much nothing you can do.

(A nice example: We fought AMP and they had like 70 % of the Zerg Scourges. Yes, you can stand up to that quite some time. But there is a Point in fight when the Guardian just cannot stand up with boons anymore. And then you will be just wiped)

The firebrand is okish. But there is a General reason why most People start to Abandon it in public zergs.

What can be done? Almost nothing. Because it is no Problem of the guard itself. There are some traits that can be changed. (the Mantra trait eg.) And some other abilities should be brought in line. (the healing Mantras last cast) but all in all the firebrand is fair. but that is right now not enough.

 

2. The necromancer has always been fair. A good powerhouse but as soon as you came Close he was dead. Right now there are several things that make him too strong. one is the fact that the effects work with both the shade and himself. Make it either or. Scourge is bringing more consistency in condition removal to the table than firebrand. And barrier. At almost no cost. the offensive part is still as strong. Make him either or. Maybe tune down the base stats of the abilites and pump up the scaling. So that he only can be really strong in one part of this and only if he invests all he got.

 

3. the warrior is in a super bad spot. Especially when talking about diversity. In pvp and wvw the dome and its interactions are still just too good. And they did not Change anything about this. i wont go deeper since i am fed up with discussing this.

 

 

All in all you ideas on how to buff/nerf the specs are pretty bad and short sighted. But this was explained earlier and i won't write it again. buffing things outside the powercreep won't Change the powercreep but in the worst case bring up some new.

the tomes cast time is really important. Otherwise the tomes would be too strong. This way they would be in line. If you could protect them easily. Which you can't.

[Threather.9354]

Holosmith is super strong now with massive/unique party/zerg support with decent damage, no changes needed. I wont go deeper into detail because there's something that would get nerfed if anet knew about it (which OP obviously overlooked). Overall the patch gave holosmith so many tools to battle conditions while nerfing damage/scourge which gave engis more room by not being hardcountered by condispam anymore.

 

And lol, spectrum shield is already so good, if dwarf rev comes back into meta, holo would never die. We're kinda at the verge of it happening also, melee rev doesnt have that much lower damage than glint/shiro hammer rev due to higher reach and scourges not buttonsmashing your resi away 100% time.

 

Holo is definitely pinnacle of blob/guild play now. Requires so much skill, intuition, experience and adaptibility compared to firebrand/scourge/spellbreaker due to you always being on the edge. Truly a image of high risk, high reward gameplay that isnt total buttonsmashing.

 

I cant see scrapper being viable outside very organised play with the stealth though, the damage is so terrible after all the nerfs.

 

Overall issue with thieves and rangers are that they dont have good weaponsets for zerging with some kind of long range AoE burst or AoE field with relatively fast cast time. Whats the point of having a class that can only single target with barely any support or isn't capable of bursting in a bomb meta?